Belgian Labor Party

The Belgian Labor Party (BWP) was the first major socialist political party in Belgium, founded in 1885. The party was founded at a meeting of 112 workers at the De Zwaan cafe in Brussels, where Karl Marx had written The Communist Manifesto. In 1893, the party called for a general strike to pressure Prime Minister Auguste Beernaert to introduce universal male suffrage in elections, and the strike succeeded. After 1919, universal male suffrage and proportional representation greatly enhanced the party's parliamentary strength and it participated in several governments. In 1940, the Labor Party merged into the Belgian Socialist Party.